Bush support plummets in new poll

AUSTIN — As former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush tries to reenergize his presidential primary campaign, a new national poll shows his support plummeting among Republican voters.

The latest Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday shows Bush has dropped to low single digits, just as the native Texan's campaign has started a "Jeb Can Fix It" tour to grow his flagging support.

At the same time, Donald Trump and Ben Carson continue to lead the crowded Republican field — and Carson is shown as even outperforming Democrat Hillary Clinton in a general election.

Conducted after the televised GOP debate from Colorado last week, the latest poll gives Bush just 4 percent, compared with 10 percent in the poll's September results. The latest poll also shows that 58 percent of registered voters have a negative opinion of him, the highest ranking among the GOP candidates. Carson posted the highest favorability rating in the GOP field.

Trump and Carson were tied, at 24 and 23 percent support respectively, as were Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Texas Sen. Ted Crux, at 14 and 13 percent.

The other GOP contenders polled at 3 percent or less, with 9 percent of the voters polled saying they were undecided.

On the Democratic Party side, Clinton was at 53 percent, compared to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders at 35 percent. That was an increase for Clinton from September, before Vice President Joe Biden decided not to run.

In a general election, the poll showed that Carson would win over Clinton 50 to 40 percent, and that Rubio, Cruz, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie would do the same by smaller margins.Clinton would beat Trump 46 to 43 percent, according to the poll.

But Trump fared well in leadership qualities, drawing 60 percent support. Clinton and Christie were next at 56 percent.

The poll surveyed 1,144 registered voters nationwide by phone between Oct. 29 and Nov. 2, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points.